


I'll Give You Nothing But Truth

by runnerfangirl



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Blue Lions/Golden Deer Joint Route, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Minor Violence, Post-Time Skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:35:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23708494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runnerfangirl/pseuds/runnerfangirl
Summary: It had been a week since their last battle. No one suspected anything wrong, certainly not this. One morning, the leader of the Alliance was gone and in his place was a familiar-looking five-year-old boy.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Claude von Riegan, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 10
Kudos: 221





	I'll Give You Nothing But Truth

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe I finally finished this, phew...  
> I was inspired to write a little Claude fic since I did this little [drawing](https://twitter.com/runnerfangirll/status/1251317906689921027?s=20/) and I had to give in to my urges, haha. Hope everyone likes some fluffy fluff!  
>   
> Also, because of Dimiclaude, I finally caved in and opened a [twitter](https://twitter.com/runnerfangirll/) account. So, by all means, feel free to bother me if you'd like to scream about Three Houses and Dimiclaude *-*  
>   
> Title from Ed Sheeran's song "Small Bump".  
> 

No one knew how it really happened.

One day Claude was as fine as a leader in a war could be. It was easy to see that he was sleep deprived, but no one could convince him to sleep instead of going over his schemes and making back-up plans for his back-up plans. The troops were getting ready to march to Fort Merceus in a few weeks and everyone was busy with preparations. Both Golden Deer and Blue Lions were training every single day and spending whatever little time they had with their friends. No one suspected that there was something wrong.

The next day, Hilda found a five-year-old in Claude’s room instead of the man himself.

The first thing she did, after staring at the little boy sleeping on the bed for a while, was to call for Marianne. Hilda was sure the girl was hiding away from others in her room, so she would surely hear her call. And if Marianne could see what Hilda was seeing too, then she would freak out.

“Marianne!”

Few seconds passed in silence. Then, the noise of a door opening and closing and silent steps approaching Claude’s room.

“Umm, yes, Hilda? Did you and Claude need something?” Marianne asked. She was standing right next to the door frame, not seeing what was inside.

“Yeah, would you check something for me?” asked Hilda, bringing up a cheerful smile for the other girl despite her confusion.

Marianne looked uncomfortable, as she always did when someone asked something from her, but at least with Hilda, she was willing to try what was asked. “Umm, sure?”

Instead of a verbal answer, Hilda just pointed the inside of Claude’s room. She wasn’t sure how to explain the situation.

At first, Marianne hesitated as if she didn’t want to go inside without Claude’s permission, but she eventually took a step when Hilda encouraged her with a nod. After passing the doorframe, Marianne looked around, trying to find what Hilda needed her for. When her eyes stopped on something, she tilted her head in confusion and blinked rapidly for a few seconds. Hilda knew that her eyes landed on the little boy sleeping on the bed.

So, it wasn’t just Hilda’s imagination. _Ugh, this was going to bring up so much work!_

“You can see him too, right?” Hilda asked. It didn’t hurt to be extra sure.

Marianne only nodded as an answer before turning to the pink-haired girl. “Who’s that?” she whispered quietly, not wanting to wake the sleeping boy.

“I have no clue,” Hilda started. “I found him when I was looking for Claude, who is nowhere to be found, by the way.” Her gaze left Marianne’s and turned back to the bed where the mystery boy was sleeping. “I wonder why-”

A pair of huge, green eyes were looking right back at Hilda.

“Uhh, Marianne?” Before the girl in question could answer, Hilda nudged her arm to make her look towards the bed, not breaking eye contact with the boy for a second.

When Marianne saw the boy awake, the only thing she let out was a quiet “Oh.”

Hilda was not sure how long the three of them stared at each other in silence. The stillness was broken when the boy reached under the pillow and pulled out a dagger. She had no idea how the boy knew Claude hid a dagger under his pillow, but she didn’t have time to think about that when the boy finally spoke.

“Who are you?!” he shouted. His voice was trembling but still demanding. “Where am I?”

His voice… His voice was too familiar.

Suddenly struck by a crazy idea, Hilda took a better look at the boy. His green eyes, matched with the messy, brown locks, were also familiar. A small part of his hair was braided, and it was dangling from the side of his face in the same manner that used to be the signature look of her house leader. And his voice too. It didn’t have the lilt or amusement that Hilda was used to hear for most of the time. It was younger, higher pitched, and confused in a way that Hilda never heard from Claude. But the youngest Claude she knew was seventeen years old, and this boy was…

“Little Claude?!”

~

“I don’t want to deal with kids ever again!”

“Shh, Hilda! He can hear you!!”

Yes, okay, maybe she shouldn’t complain when the boy was near her, but…

“I don’t care! We’ve been running around the monastery for hours now! I could be doing nothing instead!”

True to her words, they were running around for a while now. Apparently, little Claude didn’t know what patience was.

After finding little Claude in… real Claude’s room and convincing him that they weren’t going to hurt him and they were friends, Hilda had gathered all the Golden Deer and gave them the news that their leader was now a child.

It went as well as one might expect.

Hilda blocked out Lorenz’s comments as soon as he started complaining. Lysithea and Raphael looked overjoyed to have a chance to play with a kid after they were over the initial confusion. Leonie seemed to have a hard time believing it, but Hilda briefly saw a smile appear on her face too. Ignatz ran off quickly to bring his art supplies because he wanted to draw their leader as a child when he had the chance and save the memory forever. During the meeting, poor Marianne was left with keeping little Claude busy, who looked amazed by the fact that she had blue hair.

For a brief second, Hilda had felt a sense of peace overcome her. It was nice to see her friends enjoying themselves like they were young again, like they weren’t in the middle of a war. Her thoughts had left her quickly, though, when little Claude decided that he was bored and ran out of the old Golden Deer classroom.

Since then Hilda and others who had volunteered were trying to keep up with the little boy. Half of the time they were trying to catch him, half the other, they were showing him the main buildings in the monastery and introducing him to people they saw on the way.

Essentially, Hilda didn’t want the word that Claude had turned a five-year-old to get out of the members of Golden Deer. She was sure everyone would be left confused when they learned that their leader in the war was… invalid for now, and that would create even more work!

She didn’t have much chance left when little Claude ran around the monastery grounds without a care in the world. Thankfully, the Professor had assured her that she would take care of things until Claude was better and there wasn’t much urgent for Claude since they had a few weeks before their next battle.

Hilda’s thoughts turned back to present by little Claude and Lysithea’s laughter. It seemed like the white-haired girl had finally caught the boy. Or maybe she bribed him to stop running with sweets. Oh well, it meant less work for Hilda, so she didn’t focus much on _how_.

They were now walking into the training grounds because little Claude insisted that he wanted to “see what’s behind those big doors!” There were four other people present inside and all of them from Blue Lions. Mercedes and Annette were practicing their spells when they saw a little boy run into the grounds followed by Hilda and Lysithea. Felix and Sylvain were sparring on the side. The red-haired man turned to watch them curiously while the other only huffed at being interrupted and returned to train against a dummy.

For probably the fiftieth time that day, Hilda introduced the little boy as Claude and briefly explained the situation. As soon as she was done, Mercedes and Annette were rushing over to their side, kneeling down to talk to this “adorable child”. He was more of a “brat who didn’t stop running” at this point, if you asked Hilda. Sylvain had also walked closer to them in interest and joined the small conversation with the tiny Duke of Alliance, pulling out more laughter from the little boy by poking his tummy.

Watching her leader, and one of her best friends, laugh so freely (even as a child), Hilda thought that maybe this wasn’t so bad at all. Of course, she wished Claude would turn back to his self eventually but seeing this side of Claude also brought joy to her and everyone around him. Hilda had noticed how everyone else in the monastery had smiles on their faces whenever they saw the boy run by. With his never-ending energy, little Claude seemed to bring a temporary relief to everyone and make them forget about the war even if it was only for a few seconds.

More importantly, Hilda had, for the first time in five years, heard a genuine laugh from Claude. She was one of the only people who could see all the weight the man was trying to carry on his own shoulders. There were constant bags under his eyes because he always chose to look over the maps and plan instead of sleeping. His hands were always clenched into fists because even though he wanted to shout at the nobles to shut up and just trust him with leading this war, he had to listen all of them complain during the meetings.

But now…

Now, Claude looked free. Free from carrying the weight of the war on his shoulders, free from trying to keep everyone around him alive, free from leading a scrambled country.

Hilda might need to run after little Claude for the whole day and make sure that he didn’t get lost or fall from somewhere accidentally. Still, this wasn’t so bad at all.

When it seemed that the little boy reached the end of his attention span, the three Blue Lions said their goodbyes and turned back to their training. Hilda reached out for the boy’s hand. If she could grab him before he ran away, they could go to the dining hall as they had planned. However, her hand closed around thin air, and in seconds, Claude was running off again. Thankfully, instead of getting out of the training grounds and making Hilda and Lysithea chase him again, he was running towards Felix and Sylvain.

Sylvain stopped their sparring again when the boy reached them. It made him earn a grunt from Felix, but he quickly dismissed that with a smile and kneeled down in front of Claude.

“Hey there, little Duke. Did you need something?”

Hilda saw Claude nod and point his finger at Felix. When she and Lysithea walked closer to the trio, she heard their conversation more clearly.

With an unfiltered curiosity in his voice, Claude asked, “Who’s that?”

Sylvain let out a laugh while Felix only grumbled and looked at Claude with furrowed eyebrows. Hilda couldn’t help the laugh escape from her lips as well. Lysithea, right next to her, was also smiling and she could hear the other girls in the training ground were giggling as well.

“That, little Duke,” Sylvain pointed at Felix, imitating Claude, “is Felix. He doesn’t talk much and looks angry all the time. But he actually has a soft heart.”

That got Sylvain a hit from the training sword, but he only laughed more while rubbing his back.

Claude turned his attention to the object of his curiosity. “Why don’t you talk?” he asked to Felix.

The man in question huffed and said, “I don’t have any need to talk to you if you are not sparring with me.” With that he turned back to the training dummy he was destroying earlier, apparently giving up on Sylvain as a partner.

Hilda, and probably everyone else, thought that was the end of the conversation and she was about to pull little Claude out of the training grounds when the boy’s words stopped her.

“Then I’ll spar with you!”

Silence fell over the training grounds. Felix turned to look back at the little boy with a raised eyebrow. He opened his mouth to say something, but Sylvain broke the silence instead when he started cackling. Felix shot him a dark look, which totally did nothing, and brought his attention back to the boy who was looking at him expectantly.

“Can you even hold a sword properly in your hands? Don’t waste my time.”

“But I have this!” Claude said and pulled out his dagger from his belt.

This was the only thing that no one could convince Claude about. After Hilda and Marianne explained to him that they were friends, the boy had stopped pointing the dagger at them. But when they asked him to leave it because they were afraid that he would hurt himself, the boy resisted and insisted that he was going to carry the dagger around. In the end, they had to relent. At least, Claude seemed to know how to wield it properly. Though, it didn’t make Hilda feel better when she thought about what Claude must have gone through to know how to protect himself with a dagger so well.

Felix seemed to at least appreciate Claude’s bravery because he turned fully towards the boy, and put his feet into a fighting stance, like he was taking Claude’s offer seriously to spar together. Hilda felt fear spark in her chest. Claude wouldn’t get hurt because of this, would he? All the girls in the training grounds were looking at the two, waiting for something to happen and Sylvain was still cackling as he watched the events unfold.

Hilda couldn’t help but voice his concern. “Hey, Felix? He is a little kid, you know, and he’s just-”

Before she could finish, Felix swung his sword in a low arc and even Sylvain went silent. The man was aiming for the side of Claude’s body, but Hilda realized with a relief that the swing held nothing of his actual power. She had thought that Felix would get Claude with his sword, probably knock him down to show that he was not a worthy sparring partner, and that would be the end of it. But of course, Claude surprised them again.

With an unexpected swiftness, Claude moved out of the way before the wooden sword could touch him. Using his element of surprise, Claude swung his own dagger. He could have slashed at Felix’s arm, but the man quickly realized that his opponent was more talented than he thought and got a hold of Claude’s tiny arm. When the boy realized that his hand was caught, he let his dagger drop to the ground. Though, instead of admitting defeat, he held onto Felix’s arm and swung himself up. Then…

Then, Claude bit Felix’s arm.

Felix let Claude’s arm go in surprise and the boy dropped to the ground on one knee. He quickly grabbed his dagger from where it had fallen and ran away from the man and behind Hilda’s legs before Felix could reciprocate.

At that moment of silence, Hilda realized something new about Claude.

He did not know how to fight with a dagger; he knew how to protect himself with a dagger. That difference changed a lot of things. Claude’s technique against Felix was defensive from the start. He knew he couldn’t win against the man. Thus, he focused on trying to injure him and then ran away.

At five years old, Claude knew how to wield a dagger and fight against those who were much taller and bigger than him. Hilda didn’t know what put him into those situations when he was so little, but she knew that they were definitely going to have a talk when Claude was back to his actual age.

Once again, it was Sylvain who broke the silence in the training grounds, and this time, he was almost on the ground with how hard he was laughing.

“Fe… Fe-Felix! He totally got you!” he let out between his laughter. Felix gave him a jab at his ribs and grumbled at him to stop laughing. He fixed his hold on the sword and gave an acknowledging nod to Claude, who was now standing next to Hilda, and returned to his training.

On their way out, Hilda finally had a grip on Claude’s hand. Mercedes and Annette bid them goodbyes between their giggles and the trio left for the dining hall. If Lysithea and Hilda kept giving little Claude praises on their way, well, no one could blame them. Claude looked absolutely adorable when he was happy with pride.

~

They were not even halfway to the dining hall, when little Claude was distracted again.

He was jumping on his feet as he pointed at the bridge leading to the cathedral. “Can we walk on bridge? Is there water under? Can we go look?”

Hilda and Lysithea shared a silent, exhausted look before agreeing to Claude’s wish and changing their destination. They had learned earlier that day that it was much easier to let the boy explore the monastery rather than trying to keep him in one place.

When they reached the bridge, Claude run to the sides in glee. Hilda wasn’t sure what he found so exciting about the bridge they crossed almost every day, but then again, it was hard to understand kids. Lysithea was keeping a closer look at Claude, making sure he didn’t fall from the edge as he tried to see what was underneath. At least, Hilda wasn’t looking after Claude by herself. It would be impossible to keep track of the boy.

She distinctly heard Claude asking Lysithea if she knew about the stars and if this would be a good spot to watch them at night. Then he went around, asking her random questions about what was around them before he settled on the destroyed cathedral.

“What is that? We didn’t go there.”

“That’s the cathedral.” Lysithea explained, also turning to look at the building that was still under reconstruction. “But you shouldn’t go in there. It was destroyed and there’s, uhh… someone…”

She turned to Hilda with an expression that screamed “help!” and the pink-haired girl noticed the other’s struggle.

Dimitri was probably in the cathedral.

And honestly, Hilda wasn’t sure how the man would react to seeing Claude (or just seeing a five-year-old in general). She could understand Lysithea’s reluctance to talk about the exiled prince. Dimitri was better now than when they had met in the Gronder Field. But he would still stand in the cathedral by himself and occasionally lash out to anyone who dared to walk near him. Hilda was not going to risk Claude getting hurt, so the cathedral was off limits.

“You shouldn’t go in there, Claude,” Hilda said as she approached the other two. “Like Lysithea said, it was destroyed, and the building is not stable. You can get hurt if you go inside. So, stay away, okay?”

Claude blinked at her for a few seconds before nodding his head. Hilda smiled at his easy agreement and got a hold of his hand once again. “Good. Now, let’s go get some food. All this work has made me hungry!”

They set off for the dining hall for the third time, hoping to make it to their destination.

In hindsight, Hilda should have known better than to believe that Claude would listen to her and stay away from the cathedral.

~

Claude got up from his bed when he knew everyone was asleep.

It’s been a while since the pink-haired lady, _Hilda_ , he reminded himself, tucked him into bed (even though he said she didn’t need to!). The hallway outside of his room was silent. Everyone must be in their rooms now. Perfect time to sneak out.

When talking about the cathedral, Lysithea had mentioned that there was someone in the cathedral. Even though he was also warned that it was not safe to go there, Claude couldn’t help his curiosity. He needed to meet everyone in this monastery. He wouldn’t be able to sleep until he did so. If there was anyone who might have ill intentions, he would have to be extra careful or leave the monastery entirely. Claude wasn’t sure where he would go, but that was a problem to think about later.

After slipping his tiny feet into the shoes Hilda got for him from the marketplace, Claude grabbed his dagger from under his pillow and tied it to his belt. His steps didn’t make much noise on the floor, but he was still careful to not alert anyone. Quietly opening the door, Claude slipped out and ran through the hallway before anyone could see him.

When he got out into the open air, Claude was careful to be quick but also discreet. He had seen from his window that some knights were patrolling the monastery at night. He hid his small body whenever a kinght appeared and continued running when they turned a corner, until he reached the doors of the cathedral.

There was a gap left at the doors and Claude guessed that they would creak if he tried opening them. So, he let all the air in his lungs out and he squeezed his little body through the gap as best as he can.

When he saw the cathedral from the inside, Claude understood what the others meant by destroyed. Half of the walls were crumbled down, with rubble and debris covering most of the floor. In the corner were some stones that might have been statues but most parts of them were chipped off. He was still taking in the old structure of the building when his gaze landed on a figure in the middle of everything.

Holding his breath, Claude quickly moved behind one of the benches near him. He guessed that the figure must belong to a man because it looked so tall and huge! At least, he had his back turned to Claude, so he couldn’t know that he sneaked in, right?

When the man didn’t turn to Claude or chastise him for being here so late at night, the boy let out the breath he was holding. He peaked his head from behind the bench to take a better look at the other occupant in the building.

From afar, Claude couldn’t see much, but he noticed that the man had blonde hair. Everything else was covered by the black and white fur on his shoulders. It was so big and puffy that Claude was reminded of a lion he had seen a picture of in a book once. Under the fur, the man was wearing a dark blue cloak, and that was all Claude could make out about him.

Claude had seen what he sneaked in here for. He should have returned to his room before anyone noticed that he was missing. But there was still so much that he didn’t know about the man and he wanted to learn.

The boy got out of his hiding spot. He quickly ran two rows closer to the mysterious figure and hid behind another bench.

Now that he was closer, Claude could see some things that he couldn’t before.

Like the large symbol on the man’s cloak. On it was a knight, who was riding a horse with… wings? Claude wasn’t familiar with the animal, but he remembered seeing the symbol elsewhere earlier that day. It was on the armor of some blue soldiers that he had seen around the monastery. It was also on the armor of the two man he met in the training grounds, one with the red hair and the one he bit. If this man in the cathedral also had the same symbol, wouldn’t that make him a friend? But then, why would they tell him to stay away from here?

Claude also noticed that there was a full plate right next to the man’s feet. It was the same food he ate for dinner, but he wondered why the man didn’t eat it yet. Wouldn’t it be cold by now? Someone should tell him to eat. Hmm, maybe Claude will, if he ever got to talk to him.

The boy was seriously considering coming out of his hiding spot and asking the man to introduce himself when he shifted on his feet and accidentally knocked down a loose plank of wood from the bench.

As it fell to the ground, the noise echoed throughout the cathedral and Claude cringed to himself. He felt more than saw the man turn his head towards him, but the boy was already hiding behind the bench and holding his breath.

Claude stood still until he heard shuffling, and then waited a bit more. Then, he slowly peaked from behind the bench. When he saw that the man was back to staring at the rumble in front of him, he made a dash towards the door. He slipped out and ran back to his room the way he came.

~

“I went into the cathedral,” Claude confessed the next day, while they were eating lunch.

Some people he had met as the “Golden Deer” were on the same table with him. The big, blond man and the smaller, light-green haired one (Raph and… Ignat?) were sitting in front of him while Hilda was right next to him. Also on their table were some familiar faces from the training grounds and a silver-haired boy Claude haven’t met yet.

“WHAT?” Hilda turned to him as soon as the words left his mouth and almost dropped her water goblet to the floor.

Claude knew he probably shouldn’t confessed that he sneaked out at night and went where the others told him not to. But he couldn’t help but be curious the whole morning. And maybe the best way to learn about the man he met yesterday was to directly ask the others. Claude had expected that Hilda would be surprised and maybe a little angry at him, but he didn’t expect the other occupants of the table to turn to him.

From the side, Claude heard the dark-haired man that he bit (Felix?) mutter under his breath. “So, you have met the boar.”

The little boy wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear that, but he did anyways. “Boar? I didn’t see a boar.”

Syl, the red-haired man whose name was too long for Claude to pronounce, must have elbowed Felix under the table because he grumbled loudly and returned to his food. Claude kept looking at them, waiting for an answer.

“He means His Highness, little Duke. You can see him around the monastery sometimes, but he’s mostly in the cathedral,” Sylvain explained.

“His… Highness?” Does that mean the man was a king? Like Claude’s father?

“Yes,” the silver-haired man spoke for the first time. “His Highness is the crown prince to the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. Though lately, he’s been…” The man trailed off.

Claude thought about what Felix had said. Boar? But didn’t the man look more like a…

“I think he’s more like a lion! He had a huge fur around his shoulders.”

His comment sent Sylvain into a loud fit of laughter. The others laughed too, but they were quieter. Sylvain seemed to laugh loudly whenever Claude was around.

“That’s… That…” The red-haired man tried to stifle his laugh, but he wasn’t very successful. He only stopped when Felix jabbed him in the ribs.

Now that the heavy topic of ‘His Highness’ was somewhat closed, Ashe turned to the little boy.

“Oh, I heard about you, little Duke,” he said, borrowing the nickname Syl used for Claude. “I’m Ashe. Honored to meet you!”

Claude looked over Hilda to see the silver-haired man properly. “Me too!”

As Ashe and Claude started chatting, over Hilda, mind you, the topic somehow turned to archery and Claude became an untamable bundle of joy in his seat. Right away, Ignatz joined their conversation too, and the trio talked about their favorite weaponry while Hilda was stuck in between them all.

And there was so much man talk she could take.

“Okay, boys,” she said, standing from her seat and nudging Claude to do the same. “Great talk, but now we have to go.” Then, in a quieter voice, she continued, “It’s finally Marianne’s turn to look after the little devil.”

As she grabbed both hers and Claude’s plate, the little boy waved enthusiastically to the occupants of the table and grabbed a promise from Ashe to show him the cool flowers in the greenhouse. Hilda grabbed a hold of Claude’s tiny arm as soon as her hands were free and led them towards the stables, where she guessed Marianne would be at this hour.

“Hey, Claude,” Hilda said when they were halfway to their destination. The boy didn’t answer verbally but tugged at her hand to show that he was listening. “Don’t get too close to Dimitri, promise?”

“Dim-Dimit… Who?” the little boy asked, looking at her in confusion. Hilda realized that he probably hasn’t heard his name before.

“The man in the cathedral,” she explained. “He gets… angry, very easily. I don’t want him to hurt you, okay?”

When Claude kept looking at her instead of answering, Hilda pressed, “Okay, Claude?”

Finally, the boy said, “Okay,” with a shrug and turned to look at the people they were passing. Hilda let out a sigh, but it wasn’t in relief.

She had a feeling Claude wouldn’t listen to her, again.

~

It was another sleepless night Dimitri was spending with his ghosts when he heard the unfamiliar footsteps again.

It must have been the same person who tried sneaking into the cathedral yesterday. Dimitri didn’t recognize the sound of their steps. So, it must be someone he didn’t know of. They sounded quick on their feet and very quiet. Probably someone with a small body.

Yesterday, Dimitri was ready to strike the person down with his lance as soon as they got close. However, they only watched him from afar, only getting as close as the second row of benches behind him. When he turned to look, they hid behind the bench and soon after, they were running out of the cathedral. Dimitri decided that it wasn’t worth thinking about the intruder after they have left. His ghosts were demanding his attention instead.

However, the person was back again today.

Their light footsteps sounded more confident this time. Rather than hiding behind the benches again, Dimitri sensed the person approach him slowly. He tried to make out who he might be against as he waited for the intruder to come closer. His hand tightened around his lance, ready to attack at the slightest danger he felt.

The person got closer and closer; their footsteps still too silent to belong anyone but a trained assassin.

One more step. Dimitri fixed the grip on his lance.

Another step. He shuffled his feet slightly to get into a better fighting position.

Another step and the person stopped. Dimitri turned back on his heels, pulling his lance back, ready to attack with murder in his eyes, and looked at the intruder.

There was the dusty air of the cathedral in front of his eyes and Dimitri had to lower his head to the ground to see the person he was looking for.

He had expected to see someone from the monastery, giving into their curiosity to see the beast the prince of Faerghus has become. He had expected to see an assassin, sent by the Empire and ready to cut his throat with a blade in their hands. He hadn’t expected to see a child standing in front of him.

Even in the darkness, Dimitri could make out the green of his eyes and his brown locks. He was in his night clothes, which made Dimitri think that he must have snuck out. One of the boy’s hands was resting on the dagger attached to his hip. The weapon wasn’t even larger than Dimitri’s palm. It was a terrible choice if someone wanted to hurt him with it, but the boy seemed to be more comfortable with the dagger in his reach.

Dimitri lowered Areadbhar. The boy didn’t look like he intended to hurt him, and even if he did, Dimitri surely wouldn’t need his weapon.

“Who are you?” he asked instead of trying to figure out the boy’s purpose by himself. “What are you doing here?”

The boy’s answer was nothing Dimitri could have expected.

“I wanted to meet you,” he said in a cheerful voice, as if the man in front of him didn’t almost cut him into half with his lance.

Dimitri huffed and half-turned back to the rumble. He didn’t have time to deal with little boys. The ghosts asking for revenge.

“Go back to your parents, boy,” he said dismissively.

Contrary to what he had just said, the boy took a step closer. “My name is Claude,” he said. “What is yours?”

Dimitri flinched slightly. Claude… The boy’s name was Claude?

The familiar name made the crown prince realize that he hadn’t seen the leader of the Alliance for a few days now. He never sought him out, no. But every few days, Dimitri knew that Claude would come to the cathedral while he was there too. Sometimes, he would be too deep in his mind to notice the other’s presence, and the only sign of Claude’s visit would be a new plate of food near his feet. Other times, the man would come to chat with him, even though Dimitri wouldn’t answer with more than a few words. Or Claude would quickly slip into the cathedral, stand in the back for a while and slip out without approaching the man in front of the rubble.

Dimitri didn’t think much about the other. The dead was demanding his time and attention every second he was alive. Even if he found himself thinking about Claude for a second, his focus would quickly divert before he could ponder much. Thus, Dimitri never realized the absence of the man until the boy in front of him said his name.

Then, what were the odds that there was a little boy who had the same name as the leader of the Alliance in the monastery? Who… also looked very familiar to the said man, Dimitri realized. Green eyes, brown hair, dark skin, even a little braid hanging down from the side of his face that reminded Dimitri their time at the academy.

Did Claude have a son?

The idea sounded ridiculous. They have been in a war for the past five years. But then again, how much did Dimitri know about Claude to talk whether he had a lover and children? Maybe the man had married soon after the monastery fell. Maybe he always had a lover and he had been hiding them and his son for the past five years. Dimitri wasn’t really in the state to have small talks with others. It made sense if he never heard the topic come up. Why did he have this restricting feeling in this chest, then?

“So, you’re… Claude’s son?” asked Dimitri. He tried to keep his voice disinterested, but he couldn’t keep some of the confusion from seeping in.

“What? No!” the boy said. Dimitri couldn’t help tilting his head and waiting for more explanation.

“I _am_ Claude!” he started again. “Lady Hilda said I used to be older, but I don’t remember that.”

Dimitri blinked at the boy in silence. This boy was Claude? The leader of the Alliance and this war? The man who was the same age as Dimitri, but now in a five-year-old’s body?

_Why are you spending your time on unnecessary chatting?_

Dimitri was pulled out from his thoughts when he heard Glenn’s ghost whisper in his ears. Quickly, the others joined him. _Why wouldn’t you bring us her head instead?_

Dimitri glanced away from the little boy to look at the ghosts around the cathedral. They were right. He was supposed to be planning how to take her head from her shoulders as soon as possible. It didn’t matter who this boy was; he wasn’t important when Dimitri’s ghosts were screaming at him.

“It doesn’t matter,” he voiced his thoughts out loud. Dimitri turned his back to the boy, showing that he was done with the conversation. “Go back to your room, and don’t bother me again.”

The boy, however, chose not to listen to him. Instead of leaving the cathedral like he was told, he closed the space between them and tugged on Dimitri’s cloak. “But I want to talk to you. You didn’t even tell-”

“Enough!” The boy jumped back at the sudden shout. Dimitri’s voice roared inside the empty building. “I told you to leave me alone!”

The child took a few shaky steps back and Dimitri felt himself drown in guilt when he saw the boy’s green eyes shiny with unshed tears. Without another word, he turned back and ran out of the cathedral. Dimitri’s eyes watched him, and he kept staring at the closed doors even after the boy left.

Instantly, he found himself regretting shouting at the boy, letting his ghosts get better of him, and hurting an innocent child. Claude’s teary eyes and shaky legs came to his mind again. Dimitri’s actions only proved that he was not a man anymore, but a mere beast. A monster hiding under human skin.

_This is for the best_ , he thought. Dimitri regretted shouting at the boy, but at least it would keep him far from him after their interaction that night. Dimitri would only hurt the boy more if he was around him.

Dimitri’s gaze left the door. He turned to his ghosts, answering their demands and promising them her head. One last thought passed through his mind before he lost the sense of his surroundings and let himself be consumed by the dead.

Scaring the boy off was better. Now, he wouldn’t come back near Dimitri again.

~

The boy came back the next night.

Dimitri was left surprised once again. After yesterday, he was sure that the boy wouldn’t come near him anymore. So far, it has always been the case. Anyone who had seen the beastly side of him would keep their distance. Dimitri thought the boy would be the same, but apparently, he didn’t have any self-preservation in that tiny body of his.

And the boy wasn’t even trying to be sneaky this time. Dimitri had heard his footsteps even before he slipped through the doors. Just like the previous night, the boy just walked up to the front of the cathedral. He stopped when he was a few steps away from Dimitri, and both of them were left standing in silence.

“You’re a fool,” Dimitri said as a greeting. “I told you to stay away from me.”

His voice was gruff, unused besides the words muttered to his ghosts, but Dimitri was careful not to be loud or sound angry. Just annoyed.

“Well,” the boy started. Dimitri wasn’t sure why his calm voice lifted a weight from his chest. Maybe, deep in his mind, he was expecting the boy to be angry at him. To shout at him for his actions yesterday. That was what everyone else would do, but apparently, not the little Claude. “Lady Hilda also told me to stay in my room and sleep.”

Dimitri huffed in response but still didn’t turn towards the boy. “Why are you here?” he asked, and genuinely waited for the answer.

He wanted to know. No one else came to visit him like this. His comrades would sometimes come to check on him, but they would always keep their visits short and sparse. Maybe they thought Dimitri wouldn’t like their company (sometimes he didn’t) or maybe they just didn’t want to spend much time with him (and Dimitri couldn’t blame them for that). There was only one person who would visit him constantly like the little boy did. And that was De-

_No_ , Dimitri thought. There were two people.

One of them was Dedue. Ever since the man came back and proved Dimitri that his ghost was unnecessary, he was checking on Dimitri every day. Whether it was bringing him meals that he never ate, or chatting during the limited times when Dimitri felt like it, or training with him when Dimitri wanted to destroy something, Dedue was always there to help him.

And the other person was Claude.

Even if Dimitri never realized it, the man had also been a constant for him in the monastery. He didn’t visit daily like Dedue, Dimitri guessed he didn’t have that time with leading a war and everything else. But still, Claude would find him in the cathedral, or by the pond, or just in a random place at the monastery and keep him company sometimes. He never asked for anything, never demanded that Dimitri should come back to his senses. He was just beside Dimitri. Sometimes standing in comfortable silence, sometimes filling it with his mindless chatter (unknowingly chasing away Dimitri’s ghost even for a little while), sometimes just checking on Dimitri for a few minutes while running from one meeting to another.

Until now, Dimitri never noticed how much time Claude was spending with him. True, he was too distracted by his ghosts to keep track of time and be aware of the people around him sometimes. But there were still some moments he remembered spending with Claude. Maybe he took those moments for granted. Now that he had realized the absence of Claude once again, he felt like there was an empty hole in his chest.

A hole that was partially filled whenever the little boy in front of him spoke.

“Because I’m curious,” the boy answered to his question, reasoning his visit.

Huh, maybe this boy really was Claude. The answer was one he would expect from the man who he knew spent countless hours in the library just to satisfy his curiosity when they were in the academy. Though, Dimitri still had a hard time believing the little boy’s existence. It was hard to focus when his father was telling him to bring her head.

Still, even if the boy was the leader of the Alliance turned to a five-year-old, it didn’t change the fact that Dimitri didn’t want him to get close. Not even his friends were safe near him, he couldn’t let the boy get hurt.

Thus, Dimitri was about to tell him to leave the cathedral, but the boy spoke before he could let a word out.

“This time, I’m not leaving. Not before you talk to me.”

Dimitri heard some shuffling and a soft noise of something falling to the ground. Giving into the curiosity in the back of his mind, and a pang of need to see the boy again, he finally turned around. When he looked down, Dimitri first thought that the boy was shorter than he remembered, but he quickly realized that it was because he was sitting on the ground.

He was wearing the same night clothes from yesterday. The familiar dagger was laying on the ground next to his crossed legs. His brown locks were even messier than before, and his braid looked like it would become loose any second. The green eyes were looking at Dimitri with determination and now that he knew the truth, Dimitri could basically see the Claude he knew in the boy.

“Why do you want to talk to me so much?” Dimitri asked wearily. No one ever wanted to talk to a beast. One look at him, and people put a distance between them. Then, why? Why would this boy, who was supposed to be terrified of him, wanted to get close?

“You shouldn’t get near a beast,” he added in a quieter voice. The boy heard him anyways.

“A beast?” he asked. “Sir Felix said you were a boar.” Dimitri couldn’t help the snort that came out. Felix was probably the only one who saw the real beast Dimitri was. “But,” Claude tilted his head and seemed to think carefully for a moment. “I think you are more like a lion!”

Dimitri was dumbstruck for a moment. Was even a lion better than a boar? Still a predator, strong enough to kill anything that stood in its way, a mindless creature that would spill blood without-

“Because you have a puffy fur around your shoulders! Just like a lion… I think,” the boy said and let out a giggle, pulling Dimitri out from sinking deeper into his spiral of thoughts.

This little boy wasn’t calling him a lion because of the beast he was. He probably didn’t even know how much blood Dimitri had spilled with his hands. No, he only thought Dimitri would be a lion because of the fur on his cloak. The boy was so pure that Dimitri was afraid to taint him with his presence.

“Well,” he couldn’t help but retaliate. “Lions are not black and white.”

The boy seemed happy with getting an answer that was not “go away”. He shrugged and said, “Well, I haven’t seen a lion ever. So, I don’t care!”

He was looking up with his big eyes and Dimitri felt warmth surround him when he saw the joy in those greens instead of the sadness like yesterday. He also suddenly realized the position they were in.

Dimitri was much, much taller than the little boy, especially when he was sitting down. His neck must have been hurting from staring up so much and Dimitri couldn’t imagine how he must be feeling with a huge man towering right in front of him. Maybe he could sit down. It would surely make the boy feel more comfortable, right?

Carefully, as if sudden movements would scare the boy away, Dimitri sat on the ground. He pulled at his cloak to get the hem of it from under his legs and left his lance on the ground behind him. If the boy was happy seeing Dimitri sitting in front of him now, it was only apparent in the eagerness in his voice as he started to speak.

“Your name is Dim- Dimi… Dimtri, right? Are you really a king?”

Instinctually, Dimitri wanted to say no. Explain that he wasn’t a king and he didn’t deserve to be one. Under human skin, he was only a beast. Nothing more, nothing less. But… he found that he couldn’t say that to the boy. Claude didn’t know the blood on his hands, the pile of bodies he had created, the number of innocent people he had killed. And Dimitri wanted to keep it that way.

So, he took the easy way and only gave the boy a nod as an answer. “And you are… really Claude?”

The boy looked annoyed for a second, as if he was explaining the same thing for the hundredth time. Dimitri realized that he probably was, but he couldn’t help but ask for reassurance that he wasn’t imagining anything.

“Yes, I’m the Claude who was tall,” the boy explained. “Lady Hilda and Mari said that I turned small, but they don’t know how.”

“Do you remember anything?” Dimitri asked.

Claude shook his head. “No. Sometimes I feel weird, but I don’t remember anything.” Dimitri was ready to ask more, but it seemed that the boy was tired of talking about himself. “Are you here all the time? Don’t you go to sleep?”

“I…” Dimitri trailed off. He wasn’t sure how to explain to the boy that the cathedral was the only place where he could hear his ghost clearly and answer them.

“Do you never go out?” Claude prodded at the silence. Then, he pointed at the full plate next to them accusingly. “You never eat your food, too!”

Dimitri glanced at the plate Dedue had brought him earlier that evening. The man had silently grabbed the untouched one from the day before and left a new plate in the hopes that Dimitri would finally grab a bite. But the plate was still full. When his ghosts kept whispering and shouting at him for her head, food was just an unimportant detail for Dimitri.

“I don’t have time to eat when the dead demand their revenge,” Dimitri spat out with venom in his voice. He only realized his mistake when he turned his gaze from the plate to the boy and found him looking back with huge, surprised eyes. Ah, he wasn’t supposed to tell Claude about his ghost, was he?

Dimitri waited for the boy to bolt out of the cathedral. What was a five-year-old supposed to do when he learnt that a man much taller and bigger than himself talked to the dead?

Apparently, what Claude did was to keep sitting.

“Do you see the dead? Can you talk to ghosts?” he asked. There was curiosity in his voice instead of the fear that Dimitri expected.

The words left Dimitri’s mind and he could only move his head in a slight nod. This boy kept surprising him, acting in the complete opposite way of what he expected. Dimitri had hard time trying to understand him, but he couldn’t deny that he was happy in some way. Finally, there was someone who didn’t flee as soon as they heard the truth about his ghosts. Someone who kept staying with him, someone who he didn’t know he longed for. Even if that someone was Claude von Riegan turned to a five-year-old.

For a moment, the little boy looked to excited at the prospect that Dimitri talked to ghosts. “If you can see them,” he started, his green eyes shining with hope. “Can you see Peach, too?”

“Peach?”

Claude nodded enthusiastically. “She…” he started but was cut off with a yawn. “She was my…” Another yawn left his mouth before he could finish the sentence, and Dimitri noticed that a child was supposed to be in bed at this hour.

“You should go back to your room,” said Dimitri. This time, he was careful to not sound like he was dismissing the boy. “It’s very late.”

“But I don’t want…” Claude protested, but he was cut off with another yawn. He brought his tiny fists to rub at his eyes, and Dimitri found his lips twitching in a ghost of a smile at the display.

“Maybe…” Dimitri wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say this, but… “Maybe, you can come again tomorrow.” He hoped the boy would accept the offer and retire to his room for the night, but when had Claude done what Dimitri expected from him?

“No! I wanna stay here longer,” he kept protesting.

“You’re tired. You need sleep.”

“Then I will sleep here.”

“No!” Dimitri’s voice came out harsher than he intended. Cringing lightly, he tried to lower it back down. “This is no place for sleep.”

“But you sleep here,” Claude said.

“No, I don’t.”

“Then what do you do here the whole night?”

“I…” Dimitri wasn’t sure how a little boy managed to get his words stuck in his mouth when he was the one trying to make him go to sleep. Clearly, telling Claude to leave wouldn’t work. Yesterday, the boy had left when Dimitri scared him off, but he never intended to do that again. So, he tried to think of another way to convince the little boy. Maybe he could…

Lost in his mind, Dimitri didn’t realize when Claude got off from the ground and walked closer to him. He was pulled away from his thoughts when a weight suddenly landed on his legs and Dimitri found himself with a lapful of a five-year-old.

Claude dropped himself in between Dimitri’s crossed legs ungracefully. He elbowed the man in the stomach during the process, but Dimitri barely felt it. He stared at the boy with wide eyes, quite shocked at the change of events, and totally at loss at what he was supposed to do. Craning his neck, Claude looked up to him from where he was resting on his lap, and it looked like he was waiting carefully for Dimitri’s reaction.

Dimitri, however, was too lost in his own thoughts and he could only focus on the warmth of Claude’s body resting against his chest. What was he supposed to do in this situation? He couldn’t just kick the boy off his lap, neither did he want to. But Claude was supposed to go back to his room and sleep in a comfortable bed. Not here, in a half-destroyed, cold cathedral and definitely not in Dimitri’s lap, so close to a beast that could barely control himself most of the time.

“I want to stay here,” Claude whispered, still looking at Dimitri for an answer. At that moment, Dimitri realized two things.

First was that this boy had wormed his way into his heart somehow. Until now, Dimitri had thought he was a heartless monster, uncapable of any sorts of affection. But when he looked into the huge green eyes and felt the comforting warmth next to him, Dimitri knew that this boy had a special place in his heart.

Second was that Dimitri had not heard from his ghosts since he sat down to talk to Claude. Now that he was suddenly aware of the absence of their voices, he realized he felt more at peace than he ever did for years. When he looked around, he could still see the ghosts of his parents and Glenn, but they were silent. For the first time, they were only staring at Dimitri and the boy on his lap. There were no whispers and no shouts. Dimitri could only get a silence like this when his body gave out after days without sleep and he fell into a restless, but quiet slumber. Who knew little Claude would have the same effect on him, but make him feel even more peaceful?

Turning to the boy, Dimitri gave him a nod. If he wanted to stay here, Dimitri would let him. And if Claude kept his ghosts silent in return, at least both of them would get what they wanted.

After getting his approval, a smile finally appeared on Claude’s lips and he didn’t waste any time before cuddling closer into Dimitri’s chest. The boy wrapped his arms around himself and Dimitri realized that he must be cold with only wearing his thin night clothes. Careful not to jostle the boy much, Dimitri grabbed the hem of his cloak and wrapped it around himself. He made sure that Claude was also under the thick fabric and then let his arms wrap gently around the little body. He was careful, maybe too careful, as his hands rested on the boy. For years, he had used his strength to hurt people, but now he only wanted to protect Claude from falling off his lap in his sleep.

“Good night, Dimi,” the boy whispered, his voice already coated heavy with sleep. He snuggled even closer into Dimitri’s chest, his head fitting right under the man’s chin.

Dimitri couldn’t help but wrap his arms a little tighter in response. He wanted to protect the boy in his arms from the cold, from his ghosts, from anyone who would dare to hurt him. As they cuddled together on the floor of the destroyed cathedral, Dimitri forgot that he was supposed to protect the boy from himself too.

“Good night, Claude,” Dimitri whispered back and closed his eyes. The ghosts were quiet, and he knew that with the boy in his arms, he could get an undisturbed sleep for the first time in weeks.

In the darkness of the cathedral, a man and a little boy in his arms fell asleep, not to be awakened until after the sun rose upon the monastery.

~

To say that Hilda was freaking out was an understatement.

She had gone into Claude’s room to wake the boy up for breakfast, only to find him missing. Hilda had looked under the blankets, under the bed, even into the closet, but the boy was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t much later when she gathered the whole Golden Deer and assigned everyone with the task of looking for the little boy.

“I can’t believe the leader of the Alliance is making us search for him,” Lorenz complained.

“Well,” said Leonie. “He’s a five-year-old.”

“Exactly! How can he be so reckless and turn himself to a child?”

Lysithea turned to Lorenz, her expression showing that she was already done with the conversation. “I’m sure he didn’t do it on purpose.”

“How could we–”

Rolling her eyes, Hilda cut in before the argument grew even bigger. “Okay, okay. What we need to do right now is to find Claude. We can all turn back to our daily tasks when that’s done.” With that, she reminded everyone the parts of the monastery they were responsible for and sent them off to their search. Truth to be told, Hilda was tempted to give her part to someone else as she paired all the Golden Deer, but for some reason, she found herself willing to look for Claude.

He was going to owe her big when he returned to his older self.

Hilda and Marianne were responsible for searching the stables and the Knight’s Hall. Unfortunately, Claude was still nowhere to be found when they were done and the others haven’t come up with good news, either.

“Ugh, the little devil! Where is he?” Hilda said in frustration as they walked back to the dining hall. She would be pulling at her hair if it wouldn’t mess up her hair so early in the day.

“Umm, maybe we should look around again. Maybe he fell asleep somewhere and didn’t hear us,” Marianne suggested.

“But we looked everywhere already,” Hilda pouted. She was getting really tired of all this work! “Where can he go and just fall… Oh.”

Hilda suddenly perked up. She grabbed Marianne’s wrist and pulled the unassuming girl back the way they came. “I know where he is! Let’s go Marianne!” With urgency in her steps, Hilda led them to the cathedral.

As they were passing the bridge, Hilda saw a familiar Blue Lion in the distance. Ah, this couldn’t be better.

She squeezed Marianne’s wrist lightly in assurance before letting go and quickly closing the distance between her and the dark-skinned man.

“Hi, Dedue,” Hilda said when she reached him. The girl lightly touched his arm and fluttered her eyelashes a couple times. Hilda had never seen Dedue show an expression but a blank stare, but it wouldn’t hurt to try, right?

“Yes, Lady Goneril?” asked Dedue in a calm but impassive voice. Ah, ever the charmer.

“You were going into the cathedral, right?” Hilda nodded at the building in front of them. Dedue didn’t answer, but Hilda took that as a ‘yes’. “I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

This time, Dedue gave her a nod and said, “I would like to help if it’s within my power.”

“Oh, yes. It definitely is,” Hilda said. True to her word, she thought that the only person who could stop Dimitri was Dedue, if things came to that point.

“You see, little Claude had disappeared this morning.” Dedue looked at her in confusion, still not putting the pieces together fully. “And I think he went to the cathedral at night.”

Understanding dawned on the man and he gave a firm nod. Without another word, he walked towards the doors of the cathedral, careful with his pace so the girls could catch up to him. Hilda turned to Marianne who was standing a few steps back and urged her to walk beside them. With a mission in mind, the trio ascended the steps to the destroyed building.

When they got to the doors, Dedue stepped forward to pull them open with a familiar ease. Hilda guessed that he was probably visiting Dimitri daily. At first, the inside was too dark to make anything out. There were some rays of sunshine coming through the broken roof, but Hilda was standing too far away to see the figures in the middle clearly. She took a few steps in, blinking to adjust her eyes to the sunlight and halted her steps as soon as she saw a blue eye piercing into hers.

Dimitri was sitting in the middle of the cathedral, his legs crossed and shoulders hunched with his blue cloak wrapped around his body. Even from afar, Hilda could see the fury in his eyes.

“How dare you disturb me?” Dimitri growled out and Hilda thought that coming to the cathedral was not her best idea. There were no signs of Claude and the only living being in the building was a furious, exiled prince.

“Your Highness,” Dedue stepped forward. Hilda was glad she saw him on their way. She wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation by herself. One look at Marianna told her that the blue-haired girl didn’t have any idea either. Her expression only showed sadness at the state Dimitri was in. “It is time for breakfast,” Dedue continued, then he gestured at her and Marianne with his hand. “And these ladies were looking for a little boy who might have snuck inside the cathedral.”

“Oh,” Dimitri said. Suddenly, he didn’t look as furious anymore. Hilda thought he almost looked sad when he glanced at something in his hands, but she didn’t get to ponder about it much when she realized that Dimitri’s cloak looked too big to be wrapped around his body only.

When Dimitri shook his hands a little, gentler than Hilda ever thought he was capable of, his cloak fell open, revealing the boy everyone had been looking for. Hilda would be ashamed to have thought this later in the day, but as soon as she saw Claude in Dimitri’s arms, her first thought was, _did he hurt him?_

Thankfully, she was proved wrong. With a few shakes on his shoulder, Claude woke up and stared at Dimitri sleepily. As he was rubbing his eyes, Hilda found herself taking a few steps to get closer to them. Now that her worries were cast away, she was only left with annoyance.

“Good morning, Dimi,” Hilda heard Claude say when she was close enough. The boy turned to her when he sensed her presence and gave her one of his signature smiles. “Good morning, Lady Hilda!”

No, that smile was definitely not going to make Hilda forget what tiny anger she had. “Claude von Riegan!” she said instead of a greeting. Her voice wasn’t loud or angry, but she tried to sound stern. “I thought I told you to not sneak out of your room again!”

Claude didn’t even look sorry for the accusation. He only gave another smile that was more playful then regretful and turned to Dimitri who was watching them with a blank stare. When Claude looked at him, his eyes asking for help on how to get away from Hilda’s wrath, he only huffed out a breath through his nose.

“Don’t look at me, little one,” Dimitri said in a quiet voice. Hilda wouldn’t be able to hear him if she wasn’t only a few steps away from them. “You brought this upon yourself.”

Claude only giggled in response and Hilda let out a sigh. “Come on,” she said and gestured the doors of the cathedral with her head. She wasn’t going to try and get an apology from the boy; that certainly required much more work. Going back to the dining hall for breakfast was an easier choice. “Let’s go get our breakfast.”

At the sound of food, Claude hoped off Dimitri’s lap. If Hilda wasn’t looking at Dimitri right at that second, she would have missed the sadness that flickered in his eye. Claude took a step towards Hilda, and she was about to grab his hand and leave, but the boy turned back to Dimitri.

“It’s breakfast time, Dimi.”

Dimitri looked at him surprised. But he quickly shook his head at the offer. “You should go get your meal, Claude.”

“No, I want you to come too,” Claude protested. Hilda wasn’t sure if she should be surprised at the easy interaction between the two or just tired of dealing with a little boy so early in the morning.

Dimitri opened his mouth, probably to decline the offer again, but Dedue cut him off. “Your Highness, I think it would be the best for your body to get some food.”

The prince still didn’t look much convinced, but he should have known that Claude was as stubborn as a five-year-old could be.

“Let’s go, Dimi,” he said and grabbed the man’s hand from his lap. With all his might, Claude pulled at his arm. It didn’t even make Dimitri move slightly, though Claude made up for their difference in strength with his insistence. “Come on. Let’s go, let’s go!”

With a deep sigh, Dimitri put his other hand to the ground and heaved himself up. Hilda realized how Claude’s eyes lit up when the blond man was standing, and she wondered how they could have gotten so close in just one night. Anyone in the monastery was struggling to have a word with the exiled prince, but Claude had gone as far as sleeping in his lap during the night.

It made Hilda remember how the “older” Claude would insist on bringing food to the man in the cathedral every once in a while. In more than one occasion, Hilda had told Claude that it was fruitless to try to talk to Dimitri, but her leader had been stubborn. Apparently, it was a trait he had even as a child.

As soon as Dimitri was up and ready to walk out with them, Claude wrapped his tiny fingers around the man’s index finger. He led them both out of the cathedral, giving a cheerful “good morning” to Marianne and Dedue as they passed the two, and leaving everyone behind as he pulled Dimitri towards the dining hall.

Pleased that the prince was willing to get breakfast, Dedue left after them. Hilda gave Marianne a quick look before they followed the others. The events in the cathedral unfolded in Hilda’s mind as they walked, and she huffed out a small laugh.

Claude was now walking a few paces ahead of them with his hand in Dimitri’s. On their way, Hilda could see many people giving strange looks at the sight of the Prince of Faerghus walking outside in broad daylight, with the little Duke of Alliance holding his hand, nonetheless. No one seemed to mind the others’ glances and whispers. Even from afar, Hilda could hear the little boy’s chatter. Claude wasn’t stopping for a second to breathe or let Dimitri talk.

“Little brat,” Hilda murmured, a smile on her lips. If Claude would stay with His Highness all the time, then that meant less work for her! Though, deep down, she was happy to see both of them get along so well.

Hilda turned to Marianne and hooked her arm around the other girl’s. “So, how are you today, Marianne?”

~

A few days later, Dimitri was on his way to get lunch when his cloak ruffled, and something slammed to the back of his legs.

Instinctively, he reached for a dagger he kept in his boot but stopped halfway when he saw what was under his cloak and all his worries melted away. In its place was a tiny, blooming happiness.

“Hey, little one,” Dimitri said, lifting his cloak a little and staring at the boy clinging to his upper leg. Claude only gave him a grin as an answer and moved his body to hold tighter. “What are you doing there?”

Before answering, Claude shifted his body weight a little more. He crossed his legs at the ankles, barely reaching around Dimitri’s knee, and wrapped his arms around his thigh.

“Ashe was teaching me how to climb a tree when Lorez saw us,” explained Claude. Dimitri took a second to remember who Claude was talking about before a purple-haired Golden Deer appeared in his mind. He quietly nodded at Claude to continue.

“He said I shouldn’t spend time to climb trees and then laughed. He laughed Dimi! And he said I wouldn’t make a good monkey.”

“Oh, he did?” In the back of his mind, Dimitri realized they were talking in the middle of the pathway and blocking the road for others. He took a few steps to lean to the wall, careful not to squeeze Claude’s arms as he walked.

“Yes!” the little boy complained. One look at his face, Dimitri could see that he wasn’t genuinely hurt by Lorenz’s actions, and that was all that mattered to him. The man was probably only teasing the boy.

“Well then, I think you have proven that you’d make a good monkey. How about you let go now?” Dimitri asked.

Claude held on tighter. “Nope! I’ll stay here forever!”

Dimitri wasn’t sure if the phrasing warranted his worry. “But Claude,” he tried explaining, reaching out with his hand to pet lightly at the boy’s brown locks. “You can’t hang onto me forever.”

“I can! You’ll see!”

With a sigh, Dimitri dropped his hand. He couldn’t walk through the monastery with a little boy hanging onto his leg. What if he hurt Claude on the way? What if the boy lost his grip and fell to the stone ground?

With an idea in mind, Dimitri leaned his full weight to the wall behind him and lifted his left leg that Claude was hanging onto. When the bottom of his boot was facing forward more or less, he stopped and looked at the boy.

Claude was still attached to him, arms and legs wrapped tightly around his armor. The little boy was tilting his head back slightly to look at Dimitri better and when green eyes met blue, there was a spark of mischief in them. Claude’s tiny grin was also telling that he was very much enjoying Dimitri’s attempts at trying to make him to leave his leg.

With a smile threatening to appear on his lips, Dimitri shook his head at the little boy’s antics. He gave his leg a little shake, but the boy still didn’t let go. Dimitri tried again, a little more powerful but still careful that the boy didn’t fall and hurt himself.

When Dimitri shook his leg again, Claude’s grip loosened. The man thought he had succeeded, but he realized he was wrong when he heard Claude giggling. Now, the boy wasn’t wrapped around his leg as tightly as he used to. His arms and legs were wrapped in loose but strong circles around Dimitri and he was happily dangling from his position. Claude let out another giggle, which temporarily caused Dimitri to forget what he was supposed to be doing.

“You can’t drop me, Dimi!” Claude exclaimed with joy. “I’m a really good monkey, I won’t let go!”

“Yes, yes…” Dimitri once again tried shaking his leg, almost hard enough to land a kick on someone, but Claude didn’t show any signs of letting go. “I can definitely see that.”

The man lowered his leg back to the ground. It was apparent the boy would keep on hanging until he gave up by himself. Suddenly, another idea sparked in Dimitri’s mind. When it was time for the boy to eat his lunch, he would surely leave Dimitri’s leg to sit on his seat, right?

“Then, little monkey, I guess we have no choice but to go to the dining hall together,” Dimitri said. He pushed himself off from the wall and continued down the path he was taking before Claude found him.

On their way, Dimitri was mindful of the boy wrapped around his leg. He tried taking slower and longer steps. From outside, his walk probably looked like he had broken all his bones in his legs, but if that was what kept Claude safe, Dimitri didn’t care. With his hand, he kept the front of his cloak open, so that the little boy could see where they were going and breathe easily. If some people were looking at them on their way, Dimitri didn’t even bother answering their questioning glares. They didn’t dare to word their questions anyways. His friends had told him that he had become more approachable after he met little Claude, but strangers still stood away from him.

By the time they reached the entrance of the dining hall, Dimitri was wondering if Claude was even comfortable clinging to his armor. The gaps between the plates were probably making it easier for the little boy to hang on, but Dimitri hoped he wouldn’t hurt himself because of the sharp corners in the process.

The blond man’s thoughts cleared away when he spotted some of his Blue Lions sitting together. It seemed that they had already grabbed their lunch, but Dimitri forewent grabbing his own plate to greet them first. And maybe to get a certain child stop clinging to his leg.

“Welcome, Your Highness!” Sylvain greeted him first. A grin appeared on his lips when his eyes landed on Claude. “Oh, little Duke, you’re here, too!”

Ingrid, Mercedes and Annette were also at the table. Dimitri gave a polite nod at their greetings and looked down. “We need to eat our lunch, little monkey,” Dimitri started. He distinctly heard Annette giggle at the nickname. “Do you think you can let go, now?”

At this point, with how much Dimitri had gotten to know little Claude, he wasn’t surprised when the boy shook his head. “No! I said I’ll never let go,” Claude insisted.

“But I can’t sit down to eat like this,” Dimitri said. The boy’s answer was another shake of his head. The blond man let out a sigh and looked at his friends, his blue eye asking for help.

“Little Duke,” Sylvain decided to go first. His voice didn’t have the high, flirty tone they were used to. Rather, his voice was soft and patient, lowered down as if he was giving Claude a secret. Dimitri realized that he hadn’t heard Sylvain speak like that since their childhood when Sylvain, only a few years older than them, appeared like an adult in his eyes. In the same tone, the man continued, “You need to sit down properly to eat your lunch.”

Claude seemed to ponder for a moment, peeking out from behind Dimitri’s leg to look at the red-haired man talking to him. Dimitri dared to hope that he would let go, but Claude shook his head once again. “No, I’ll prove Lorez that I make a good monkey!”

“But food is important!” exclaimed Ingrid between her bites. “You can’t eat your food like that!”

Claude gave another shake of his head and Dimitri was left standing in front of their table, unable to sit down without crushing half of the little boy’s body.

“Are you comfortable there, Claude?” Annette asked, humor in her voice.

This time, Claude nodded his head enthusiastically. “Yes, I am,” he said, giggling after his words. The smiles on Annette and Mercedes’ faces grew before the older woman spoke to Claude. She was Dimitri’s last chance at convincing Claude to let go of him and get their lunch.

“But, Claude, don’t you think His Highness would be more comfortable too if he was able to sit down for lunch?” asked Mercedes in her soft voice. “He can’t eat if he’s not sitting down. And I’m sure you must be hungry, too.”

When Dimitri looked down at the boy, he saw that the green eyes were looking away as if he was embarrassed of his actions. But his stubbornness kept him glued to Dimitri’s leg. “But… But monkeys can hang from trees for so long! I need to show Lorez that I can do the same,” Claude said, finally turning to look at Mercedes.

The woman smiled at him in understanding and continued in a calm voice. “I’m sure you’ve proved that you can climb and hang for a long time, Claude. We will all tell Lorenz that you’ve done well, right?” She looked at the other occupants of the table and everyone nodded in agreement, giving the boy promising smiles. “Now, how about you let go of His Highness’ leg?”

Claude looked at everyone at the table. When he tilted his head to look at Dimitri, a brief sadness passed his green eyes and Dimitri wondered if he should have just let Claude do as he desired.

“But I don’t want to leave you,” Claude murmured, his voice so quiet that Dimitri barely heard him. His heart broke at the boy’s words, but Dimitri quickly reassured him.

“You don’t have to leave, little one,” he said, letting his hand caress the boy’s brown locks. “You can sit right next to me as we eat our lunch. Would you like that?”

A smile appeared on Claude’s face, quickly mending Dimitri’s broken heart, and he finally let go of Dimitri’s leg. The boy jumped the little distance he had between himself and the ground and landed on his feet. Then, he leaped onto his chair, kicking his little legs and wiggling his butt in an effort to pull himself up. Dimitri’s lips twitched into a smile at the display. Before he could get his mind around to help Claude, the boy was sitting on his chair, his green eyes looking at Dimitri expectantly.

The blond man pulled his chair. He was about to sit down when he realized that they haven’t grabbed their lunch yet. “I will go get our plates, little one,” he said. Dimitri could see the Claude’s protest forming in his eyes, but he continued before the boy could speak. “I will be back swiftly, okay? You should stay here and guard my chair, so that no one else will claim it.”

Claude’s eyes sparkled at the task he was given, and he gave a nod. “I will protect your chair, Dimi!”

With that Dimitri pushed his chair back and gave one last pat on the little boy’s head. He looked at his friends, hoping his gaze would remind them to look after Claude, but the smiles on their faces told Dimitri that he didn’t have anything to worry about.

As he started walking towards the kitchens, he heard the conversation picking up at their table.

“You haven’t left His Highness’ side since you met him, little Duke,” Sylvain said, his voice teasing. “You surely like him the most, don’t you?”

“Yes, I like Dimi a lot!”

Claude’s voice was the last thing Dimitri heard before he got out of the earshot of the conversation. This time, as he walked to grab their lunch, he didn’t try stopping the smile on his lips.

~

Claude had somehow convinced Dimitri to play around the monastery with him.

When the boy had come up and requested that they played hide-and-seek, Dimitri’s initial answer was a stern ‘no’. The day had already been an exhausting one with his ghosts’ demands and they surely wouldn’t let him spend his time on childish plays. Dimitri was sure they would appear even in Claude’s vicinity, shouting and whispering at the same time, reminding him that he was slacking, getting distracted, being worthless.

But then, Claude looked at him with his green eyes begging, his words promising only two rounds of play, and Dimitri relented. He decided that even if his ghosts appeared, their torment was worth seeing the blinding smile on the little boy’s face.

Thus, they started their little game in the early evening. Claude told Dimitri the rules (“No going into the buildings, Dimi!”) and then made him face a wall and count to thirty while he hid. Dimitri guessed it must have been a sight of a lifetime; the exiled, beastly prince of Fearghus staring at a stone wall, counting out loud as he played hide-and-seek with a little boy.

Albeit, people looked at them with apprehension no matter what they were doing. In the last few days he had spent with Claude, Dimitri realized that it wasn’t only him that caused people’s gazes to stray at them. No, people were also looking at _Claude_.

It has been almost a week since the leader of the Alliance had turned into a child. Even those who had adored seeing him run through the monastery halls were now looking at him in concern. It was only two weeks before they marched to Fort Merceus, and people were asking for their leader back. Dimitri had never been present during the war councils or battle briefings, but even he had heard how people were pressuring Professor and Hilda about bringing Claude back. Some even going as far as suggesting that the man should be declared as an invalid and removed from the council, _permanently_.

Those words only angered Dimitri. He hadn’t even talked properly to older Claude since their days in the academy, but he knew that the man would never do anything that would turn the war against their side. Him turning to a five-year-old must have been a mistake. Maybe even a sick spell from their enemies that only showed its affects after a while.

Dimitri knew that Claude wouldn’t do something like this on purpose. Especially not now, not during a war, not weeks before they marched to the Impregnable Fortress and while Claude was busy creating one his of biggest schemes.

Those people who wanted to remove him only sized this accident as an opportunity. They were cowards who didn’t deserve fighting under Claude and Professor’s guidance and honoring their lands as they won their battles. Dimitri wanted to find them and give them a piece of his mind, but now wasn’t the time. He had just finished counting to thirty. It was time to look for a little boy.

And if he was being honest, finding Claude was rather easy.

Dimitri didn’t have to look around much until his eye caught a bright yellow shirt in between the bushes in front of the greenhouse. With light steps, he approached the thicket and stuck his hand between the green leaves. Armor-clad fingers wrapped around the back of Claude’s shirt and Dimitri gently pulled out the boy from his hiding place.

“I guess I’ve come out victorious from this round, little one,” he said.

“Awwh,” Claude pouted but it didn’t last long. Soon, he was jumping up and down. “Now, it’s your turn to hide, Dimi!”

“Must I?” asked Dimitri, even though he knew it was in vain. Claude gave him a firm nod, and Dimitri sighed in acceptance. “Well then, turn around and count to thirty, little one.”

As soon as Claude turned his back, Dimitri bolted from his spot.

Thirty seconds may have been enough for someone as little and quick as Claude to hide, but with his height and clinking armor, Dimitri had to act much faster. He wanted to find a good spot to hide so that Claude could enjoy his game. The boy would surely be disappointed if Dimitri didn’t get to hide in time.

Thankfully, his rescue appeared in the form of Ashe, walking by the pond right as Dimitri was running past him.

“Ashe,” he called out and put a hand on the other man’s shoulder in urgency. “I’m in dire need for your help.”

“Oh, of course, Your Highness. Whatever it is that you need?” Ashe said, his voice tinted with worry.

“I need a good hiding place.”

Ashe stared back at him, brows furrowed in confusion.

“We are playing a game. And I need a place to hide from Claude.”

“Oh…” Understanding dawned on the silver-haired man and his tense posture relaxed. “I would like to help as much as I can, Your Highness. Have you thought about going into the dining hall? It is quite crowded after the dinner.”

Dimitri shook his head. “I can’t go inside the buildings.”

“Hmm, outside then?” As Ashe thought about potential hiding spots, Dimitri risked a quick glance at where he had left Claude counting. Hopefully, his time wasn’t up yet.

“What about the marketplace?” Ashe blurted out. “You can hide against the side of the stairs. It would be hard to find you unless Claude looks right to the side you’re standing.”

“Good idea, Ashe!”

Dimitri didn’t even finish his sentence before he broke into another sprint, barely yelling out his thanks and running towards the marketplace.

~

It had been a while since Dimitri was hiding against the stairs, and truth to be told, he was getting worried.

He had barely managed to hide before Claude started searching for him. Thankfully, there were only a few merchants left at the marketplace at that time and he was able to hide without disturbing their business. With his back pressed against the side of stairs, Dimitri had tilted his head and started watching the edge of the upper wall.

From the corner of his eye, the exiled prince could see his ghosts. They were telling him to return to the cathedral and plan the fastest way to take her head. But Dimitri didn’t pay any mind to their requests. He had become better at ignoring them since the day he and Claude fell asleep in the cathedral together.

Blocking out his ghosts, Dimitri heard Claude’s hurried, little steps before the boy appeared in his vision.

Claude stopped by the edge of the wall after passing the stairs. Dimitri watched his head turn around, searching for him. The boy even glanced at the marketplace briefly, but true to Ashe’s words, he didn’t notice Dimitri. A few seconds later, Claude was running off again.

Since then, Dimitri had either seen or heard the boy pass by the entrance hall, circling the monastery in hopes of finding him. But now, the blond man was wondering if he had been hiding for too long. How much time was he supposed to give Claude until he left his hiding place? Dimitri was getting worried, but he didn’t want to ruin the game for Claude. He decided that he would wait a little more, and if Claude didn’t find him by then, he could leave his spot to find Claude himself.

If it turned out that Dimitri saddened the boy by ruining their game, maybe they could play another round as an apology.

When Dimitri noticed that the last merchant was leaving his shop, he looked around one last time to catch a glimpse of Claude, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. He heaved himself off the cold, stone wall and turned to ascend the stairs leading to the doors of the entrance hall. At the last step, Dimitri looked around for the boy again.

The last time Claude run passed where he was standing, he was heading towards the pond. That should be a good place to start. Dimitri hoped he could find the boy quickly while they looked for each other.

He started by the pond. Then continued up by the dormitories, training grounds, down by their old classrooms, and through the Reception Hall towards the Knight’s Hall.

Claude was still nowhere to be found.

Dimitri couldn’t help the worry gnawing at his chest. What if something had happened to Claude? What if he fell down while running and hurt himself? What if Dimitri couldn’t find him until it was too late? Maybe it was the best if he asked for his friends’ help. They had better chances at finding Claude if more people looked for him.

Dimitri was walking towards the dining hall when a voice caught his attention. It sounded like a high-pitched yelp, followed by a string of curses by a deeper voice. Dimitri was suddenly struck that the yelp sounded familiar, too familiar.

“Claude!”

He sprinted towards the stables where the voices were coming from. Right as he rounded the corner, something small crashed into his legs and a blue eye met familiar green ones.

“Claude,” he breathed out, relief coating his voice. Dimitri dropped onto his knees in front of the boy and put his hands gingerly on his shoulders. His eye roamed around Claude’s body, checking for any injuries. Thankfully there didn’t seem to be any, but Claude’s clothes were ruffled and dirtied as if the fabric of his shirt was pulled and he had fallen to the ground. He was holding his dagger tightly in his right hand, the tip coated in red.

“Dimi,” Claude breathed out his name. Dimitri could see that he was trying to sound strong, but there was still a slight tremble in his voice. He wasn’t crying but his green eyes shining with unshed tears. “They-They were…”

Dimitri’s head snapped forward, his brows furrowed and his single eye hardened over the boy’s brown locks. His gaze landed on three soldiers. They had been taking slow steps backwards at the sight of the beastly prince, but they were frozen in their step as soon as Dimitri’s blue eye landed on them. One of them had his forearm bleeding, a shallow cut that Dimitri guessed was made by Claude’s dagger.

Rage was swirling inside Dimitri’s mind, his body accepting it as an old friend. A growl left his lips as he slowly rose from the ground. With the remaining part of his mind that wasn’t swallowed by anger, Dimitri gently pushed Claude behind his larger frame. The boy complied easily, slipping inside the man’s cloak and hiding his body behind his legs.

Dimitri closed the distance between himself and the soldiers in two long steps. Two men, one woman, the golden color of their armor telling that they were from the Alliance. Fear was written all over their faces, a sight Dimitri was familiar to, but it only angered the prince more. They had hurt Claude and now they deserved to die.

“Your-Your Highness, we were just–”

The woman went quiet when Dimitri suddenly reached out and wrapped his hand around the closest soldier’s throat. A gasp left the others’ mouths, but they didn’t try to stop him. The man under his hand had stopped cradling his bleeding arm and was now crawling at Dimitri’s hand in a futile attempt to rescue himself. The prince, too deep in his rage and thirst for revenge, only squeezed his neck tighter.

The soldier was wheezing, stuttering apologies and begging to be let go. Dimitri didn’t hear any of his words. His ghosts were suddenly back at the smell of violence and they were telling Dimitri to finish him. To break his neck, to end another life, to spill more blood. The skin under his gauntlet-covered fingers was so delicate, so easy to break and tear apart with his bare hands.

“You dared to hurt him,” Dimitri roared, his blue eye now as dark as a stormy sea, looking down at the soldiers. “You deserve to die.”

His ghosts were shouting, cheering at him to kill another one with his brute strength. _They deserve it_ , they whispered. _Bring us more blood_.

Dimitri squeezed even tighter, only moments away from breaking the weak neck under his fingers. _They deserve it_ , his thoughts echoed those of his ghosts. _They hurt Claude. They deserve it, they deserve it, they–_

A tug at his blue cloak stopped Dimitri. There were tiny arms wrapped around his leg, a trembling figure hiding behind his frame.

A recent memory suddenly appeared in his mind. A little boy clinging to his leg, never letting go. Getting lunch together, sleeping in the cathedral together. Letting himself smile for the first time in years. A cheery voice shouting “I like Dimi a lot!” out in the open.

Soft brown locks, a little braid tied with a golden ornament. Green eyes, shining with happiness and mischief. High-pitched laughter, loud giggles.

_Claude…_

Claude who was hiding behind his legs, who was watching the whole exchange, who was about to witness the kind of beast Dimitri was and see him spill blood right before his eyes.

No, Dimitri couldn’t do that to him. He had promised himself to hide his beastly side from Claude. He couldn’t taint the little boy who deserved only sunshine and happiness in this world, not the darkness Dimitri carried inside his heart.

He dropped the soldier to the ground and the man quickly tried to crawl away from him with a hand holding his tender neck. There would surely be bruises, but Dimitri found that he didn’t care. He turned his gaze to the remaining soldiers, who were now trying to help their friend on the ground.

“If you dare to come near him again, I will make sure it will be the last time you are able to use your hands,” he growled. His determined expression showed that he would hold onto his promise, and the soldiers must have seen that too because they disappeared from the stables in a heartbeat.

When the only ones left were him and Claude, Dimitri closed his eye and tried calming his breathing. His fingers were clenched into fists by his sides, the gauntlet digging into his palms, but the pain helped to ground him. The ghosts were once again quiet besides the occasional disappointed whispers telling him that he has become too soft. That he wouldn’t be able to avenge them like this.

_Shut up_ , Dimitri thought. _Shut up, shut up, shut up…_

“Dimi?” A soft voice broke through the fog in his brain. There was a tug on his cloak, bringing his mind to present. “Dimi?”

_Claude_ , his name now filled up his thoughts. _Claude, Claude, Claude…_

Dimitri opened his eye and looked down at the boy still hiding inside his cloak. “Claude,” he said, breathless. “Are you okay?”

The boy gave him a nod. There weren’t tears in his eyes anymore, but he still looked a little shaken. Dimitri thought it was probably the best to get him out of here.

“What do you say we go back to your room, little one? It’s getting late.”

Claude answered with another nod and Dimitri pulled his cloak open. He was waiting for the boy to leave from behind his legs to walk more comfortably next to him, but instead, Claude looked at him with a silent question in his eyes and lifted his arms up, waiting to be picked up.

Dimitri only blinked at the boy, frozen in his spot. He wanted to reach out and pick the boy up, hold him close and make sure no one hurt him again. But… but besides the night in the cathedral, Dimitri had never held Claude so close and he couldn’t keep his fears out of his mind.

What if he held Claude too tight? What if he accidentally hurt him with his uncontrollable strength? What if he held him wrong? What if his armor nicked at the boy’s bare arms? What if-

Too many possibilities going through his mind, Dimitri almost failed to notice the disheartened look in those verdant eyes before they were cast away. Claude’s arms were slowly dropping, but the man moved quicker, surprising the boy.

Dimitri gently placed his hands under Claude’s armpits and lifted him off the ground slowly, careful not to overuse his strength. The boy was so light in his hands, but the happy expression on his face was full of life. Holding the boy against his hip, Dimitri wrapped one of his hands under him to make sure he wouldn’t fall. When he was happy with their position, Dimitri pulled his cloak over the boy’s shoulders with his other hand before resting it lightly on Claude’s back.

“Are you comfortable, little one?” Dimitri asked. There were still thousands of possibilities of how this could go wrong in his mind, but he cast them away.

Claude gave him a happy nod. It answered Dimitri’s question, but he couldn’t help but be worried that Claude hadn’t been speaking as much as usual since Dimitri found him. He decided that he could think more about it when they got to Claude’s room.

“Tell me if you feel any discomfort,” he said and turn to leave the stables.

They were passing by the dining hall when Claude shifted in Dimitri’s arms. The blond was ready to stop in his step, a question ready on his lips, but the boy didn’t voice any concern and only turned slightly to rest his head against Dimitri’s armored chest.

Dimitri continued his walk, his steps now even more careful to not jostle Claude much. He was wondering whether he was holding the boy too tightly when Claude spoke.

“Thank you, Dimi,” he said. His voice was quiet, not something Dimitri was used to.

Dimitri lowered his head and spoke against the soft, brown locks, his hand patting Claude’s back lightly in reassurance. “Of course, little one. I will always keep you safe.”

No other words were exchanged until they reached the dormitories. Dimitri noticed Dedue and Ashe talking at the garden in front of their rooms and gave them a nod as greeting. The small man looked like he was ready to run up to them and (most probably) talk to Claude, but he held back when he noticed that the boy was about to doze off in Dimitri’s arms. Instead, he gave them a smile before returning to the conversation.

Dimitri ascended the stairs carefully and walked down the hall on the second floor. He could remember Claude’s room from their days at the academy. Just one door down his own, with Felix between them. There have been many nights in the past when Dimitri had decided to go for a walk and noticed the leader of Golden Deer also sneaking out of his room.

Now he stood in front of the familiar door, leading to an unfamiliar room. The owner of the said room a five-year-old sleeping in his arms.

After making sure Claude was secure in his arm, Dimitri opened the door with his other hand, stepping in and closing it gently to not wake the boy up. He took a moment to observe the room and it was simply… a mess.

There were many maps pinned to the walls, some covered in so many inked notes that it was impossible to see the land underneath. Ink-stained papers were covering Claude’s desk, overflowing to the chair and the ground. Then, there were books everywhere. On the windowsill, besides the bed, under the bed, inside the wardrobe that Dimitri could see through the half-open door. And lastly, there were children clothes, some of them laid neatly on the back of the chair, some of them thrown haphazardly on the floor.

Careful to not step on the books or clothes on the floor, Dimitri walked closer to the bed. He lifted the covers and fixed the pillow that was halfway off the bed. His plan was to put Claude into his bed and leave him to sleep comfortably, but when he was about to lay the boy on the bed, he found two green eyes looking at him.

“Let’s sleep together, Dimi,” Claude said sleepily as Dimitri rested his head on the pillow and turned to tug off his shoes.

“You should sleep here, little one, and I in my room.”

“No!” A protest easily rose from the boy. “I want to sleep together! Like in the cat-cathed… cathr…”

“Cathedral?” Dimitri asked, a little laughter seeping into his voice. Claude gave him a loud “Yes!” as if he wasn’t sleeping only moments before and Dimitri sighed in acceptance, agreeing easily. He had never been able to say “no” to Claude, but there was also a voice in the back of his mind telling him to not leave the boy alone. To stay by his side all the time and to protect him from any harm.

Dimitri’s armor clinked as he took them off piece by piece and laid them on the ground next to the bed. When he was done with everything, he turned to sit on the edge of the bed and Claude moved to sit next to him. Dimitri had just finished taking off his boots when Claude jumped onto his chest and he fell onto the bed on his back, his breath leaving his lungs at the unexpected assault.

“Claude?” he asked confused, lifting his head a little to look at the boy on top of him, but Claude didn’t answer. He was busy making himself comfortable. The boy rested the side of his head on Dimitri’s chest and moved his legs until he didn’t have any danger of falling from his position. One of his hands was curled close to his chest while the other was tugging at Dimitri’s shirt.

“Are you okay, little one?”

Dimitri lifted his legs from the ground and lay more comfortably on the bed as he waited for an answer. He rested his head on Claude’s pillow, eyes still locked on the top of the boy’s head, and rested his hands on the little hips. When he didn’t get an answer, Dimitri prodded a little more, his worry showing itself once again.

“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Anger was seeping into his voice, but he couldn’t help it.

Thankfully, Claude answered his last question.

“No,” the boy said, shaking his head a little. “They didn’t hurt me. They just said things and then I ran away. But… But I…”

Dimitri had started rubbing slow circles on his back when Claude tilted his head to look at him. For the second time that day, Dimitri noticed the unshed tears glistening in the green eyes. He wanted to stay with Claude and keep him company until he fell asleep, but Dimitri couldn’t deny that a part of him wanted to find those three soldiers again and this time, leave them worse.

“What is it, little one? You can tell me.” Dimitri tried his best to sound comforting, but the words that came out from his mouth were unfamiliar. For years he had only spoken about revenge and blood and death, and now he didn’t think he was good at anything else. But for Claude, he would try his best.

“They said I didn’t deserve to be a leader,” Claude started. “They said I should turn back, but… but I don’t know how! Dimi, I don’t remember. I don’t know I was big; I don’t know how to be big again. I don’t remember!”

Tears were now falling freely from Claude’s eyes, staining Dimitri’s shirt as he pressed himself into it. Dimitri wrapped his arms tighter around the boy in a hug and continued rubbing his back.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay, little one. You mustn’t listen to them,” Dimitri said, trying his best to give comfort. “It’s okay if you do not remember. You can stay like this as long as it takes.”

Dimitri knew that what he said wasn’t correct. The Alliance needed its leader, the war needed its master tactician, the Golden Deer needed their friend. But he wasn’t going to say that to the little boy. They could take care of it later when others found a way to bring the older Claude back.

“It’s okay, Claude. I’m here now. I will protect you from any harm, I promise.”

Dimitri continued whispering comforting words until tears stopped falling from Claude’s eyes. He was still rubbing circles on his back when only Claude’s little hiccups were left. The boy lifted his head to look at him again.

“Should we sleep now, little one?” Dimitri asked and Claude answered with a nod. The boy wiggled a little more to get more comfortable on top of Dimitri as the blond man reached down to pull the covers over both of their bodies.

He whispered a good night to the little boy and closed his eye. Deep down, he was looking forward to a peaceful sleep with the other person next to him.

Only a short while had passed when Claude’s curious voice broke the silence in the room.

“Dimi, you didn’t say if you can see Peach yet.”

Dimitri opened his eye and tilted his head to meet Claude’s gaze. “Peach?”

He could faintly remember the boy mentioning the name before, but with the many days they have spent together, Dimitri wasn’t sure when it was.

“She was my friend,” Claude explained. “She was going to be a very strong wyvern and I was going to ride her. But Nader said she died because she was so small.”

“Oh…”

It was in the cathedral when Claude had first mentioned the name. The first night they had met, and after Dimitri slipped out that he could see the ghosts of the dead.

“So, can you see her too?” asked Claude. He sounded impatient, hopeful, but his voice was also tainted with sadness at the memory.

“I…”

Dimitri wasn’t sure how to answer to that. The Professor was the only person he had talked with about his ghosts, but that was nowhere close to mentioning their presence to a little child. Of course, he didn’t see any wyverns in between the dead that haunted him. But how was he supposed to say that to Claude, who was looking at him with hope shining in his eyes? On the other hand, could he really confess out loud that he could see the dead to a child?

In that moment, Dimitri realized that there was only one option for him anyways. And he lied.

“Yes,” he said and realized that it was worth lying a hundred times to see Claude smile like that. “Yes, I can see her.”

“Really? Really?!” Claude half rose from his position, his tiny hands against Dimitri’s chest as his eyes looked around the room as if he could see his long-lost friend. “What is she doing?”

“She is… looking at you,” Dimitri said, even though his eyes never left Claude’s face. The boy didn’t notice. “I think she misses you.”

After searching through every corner of the room, Claude laid back on Dimitri’s chest, his ear resting right above the man’s heart. “I miss her, too,” the boy said in melancholy, but there was still a trace of happiness in his features.

Dimitri wrapped his arms around the boy once again and fixed the covers. “You should sleep now, little one.”

Claude curled closer into his chest in response and closed his green eyes. Dimitri couldn’t fight against the sudden urge manifesting itself in his chest, and he lifted his head to give the boy a kiss on top of his head.

“Good night, little one,” he whispered. When he didn’t get an answer, Dimitri realized that the boy had already fallen asleep.

After giving another kiss on top of the soft, brown hair, Dimitri rested his head against the pillow and closed his eye with a smile on his lips. Just like the night in the cathedral, that night Dimitri had an uninterrupted, peaceful sleep. His mind filled with child laughter and his heart filled with warmth.


End file.
